We are currently experiencing what Travis Tallent has described as the chaos phase of AI. We can see some clear parallels to the early internet era, where SEOs and digital marketers are panicking about how AI will affect or take our jobs, although we can safely say most are open and willing to accept and adapt – as long as we see improvements in some of the worryingly questionable—and, at times, amusing—answers to our questions. The impact of generative AI on search results is already creating new strategies SEOs can use to adapt to these AI-infused times.
For SEOs, AI-driven changes mean grappling with decreased organic traffic as Google’s AI Overviews and other AI-generated summaries answer more queries directly on search result pages (SERPs). Estimates suggest that organic traffic could drop by as much as 15-30% as AI-generated content increasingly fulfills user queries directly on SERPs, reducing the need for click-throughs to websites. This shift disrupts traditional SEO performance indicators and raises concerns about the future value of organic traffic as a metric.
(Quick note on terminology – This blog deals specifically with generative AI, rather than machine learning technologies such as those used for predictive modelling in medicine, which are arguably far more deserving of the term ‘intelligence’. AI is a big buzzwordy umbrella that people use to denote drastically different technologies and concepts. When I refer to AI here, bear in mind it’s shorthand for generative AI, particularly LLMs like ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini.)
Controversies and Concerns in AI-Driven SEO
Inaccurate AI Responses and the Need for E-E-A-T:
Generative AI models have no internal conception of truth, and so inevitably produce frequent factual errors. SEOs are thus emphasising Google’s E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) guidelines, particularly in high-stakes, Your Money Your Life (YMYL) content areas like finance and healthcare. Ensuring that AI-generated answers are accurate and based on credible sources has become essential, as errors can severely harm user trust and business credibility.
Plagiarism and Copyright Issues:
AI’s reliance on web-scraped data is arguably plagiaristic in nature; AI can only generate content that paraphrases or mimics existing work, so its deployment on SERPs actively diminishes the visibility and undermines the work of original creators. For smaller creators who rely on unique, insightful content to engage specific audiences, this practice can hurt revenue and limit visibility as AI content continues to colonise the SERPs. As always, legal frameworks are lagging behind tech and culture, leaving many content creators feeling under-protected from AI’s encroachment on their creative labour.
Elusive Google Guidance:
Despite the sweeping impact of AI-generated summaries and restructured SERPs, Google has provided limited guidance to help SEO professionals adapt. This lack of transparency leaves SEOs in a reactive position, often struggling to understand how Google’s AI-driven changes affect reporting, ranking, and revenue potential.
Reduced Click-Through Rates (CTR):
AI-generated answers often occupy top positions on SERPs, pushing traditional results further down the page and leading to lower CTR for first-page results. This placement threatens to reduce organic search sessions significantly, potentially down to zero in some cases, as users increasingly find their answers in Google’s AI summaries rather than visiting individual websites.
Unreliable Citations and Lack of Source Filtering:
AI-generated summaries have been observed to cite questionable or irrelevant sources, including satirical sites like The Onion, and their failure to detect satire or sarcasm in user-generated content has led to painfully misjudged answers sourced from Reddit and Quora comments.
Google’s recent updates aim to prevent these errors by reducing reliance on certain sources, but SEOs remain cautious as the tool is not yet foolproof.
How SEOs Can Navigate the Chaos Phase
Despite these concerns, SEOs need to adapt to this new world of AI-driven search results. Here are some steps SEOs can take to navigate the chaos phase:
Leverage SEO Analysis Tools with AI Insights:
Many SEO tools, including Ahrefs, SEMrush and SEO Monitor, now offer features specifically designed to analyse content within AI-driven ranking contexts. These tools can help SEOs understand which keywords or phrases are performing well in AI Overviews, track SERP positions more accurately, and adapt content strategies based on AI-driven performance indicators.
(Image from SEO Monitor)
Focus on E-E-A-T Centered Content:
Ensuring that content meets E-E-A-T guidelines is critical in this era of AI-generated summaries, especially for YMYL topics. Providing high-quality, authoritative, and reliable content, which includes the use of statistical data, increases the chances of being featured within AI-generated overviews.
Establishing strong author authority signals can improve trustworthiness and E-E-A-T in AI-overseen rankings. Creating dedicated author pages and bios, linking to professional profiles, as well as to content they have created published on industry leading sites, and using author schema markup all help search engines and AI models to recognise the expertise behind content, increasing its likelihood of being prioritised.
Maximise Brand and Content Presence Across Digital Channels:
Rand Fishkin suggests that establishing a presence on websites AI models often draw from, is essential for brand visibility in the AI era. By getting mentioned on these sites, Google is more likely to view your site and its content as a brand worth featuring and linking to in search overviews.
For SEOs, this means enhancing digital PR efforts, securing mentions on high-authority sites, and cultivating content that AI can easily access and attribute. By appearing in authoritative sources, brands can reinforce their relevance and authority, even as AI-generated content populates more search results.
The Future: Finding Stability in the Chaos
While the chaos phase of AI in SEO is challenging, it also represents a chance for growth, adaptation and looking at the wider SEO objective utilising other channels to enhance organic performance. This era requires SEOs to stay agile, testing new tactics while leaning into the core principles of authority, quality, and audience understanding. As AI integration in search continues to evolve, those who adapt early will be well-positioned to thrive in a future where AI-driven search is the norm.
The chaos phase might be unsettling, but it’s also a proving ground for the future of SEO. By embracing innovative tools, staying vigilant about industry changes, and crafting content that resonates with both humans and AI, SEOs can carve out a sustainable path through this era of upheaval.
If you’re curious what areas of SEO you should be focusing on to best capitalise on (and compete with) AI-generated content, please contact us. We’re always happy to chat.
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